She's been over the moon with how the women's team has been embraced since being introduced in 2019.

So it was great to learn more about that culture in the lead-up to the women's finals which start this weekend.

Old Scotch will play Bridgenorth at the NTCA Ground on Saturday in the premier women's first semi-final.

The club also has men's teams in division one reserves and seniors semi-finals on Saturday following the women's match.

One impressive aspect of the club is the men's and women's teams almost always warm-up together.

It's so ingrained that second-year player Maddie Pitt said it was weird when it didn't happen.

"It's great, it feels normal," she said.

"It's great to have that extra noise and encouragement from each other."

Pitt's teammate Sarah Giles was there when the women's team started four years ago.

"It was very new for everyone," she said.

"I was a first-year player. Our coach had never coached women's before and all the men had to get used to having us around as well.

"And it was a huge (time of) adaptability for everyone. But I think it was a really positive change for the club. The warm-up together all started back then.

"We just started and thought it was a really good thing for the club and haven't stopped.

"Most of our women's side can be first or second-year players. You learn a lot from the men as well.

"They bring a lot more noise to the warm-ups than what we do so it's good to have them around."

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Men's captain Jonty Swallow said his group enjoyed having the women's team at the club.

He also spoke of the club warm-up and added there were nights where the men and women did a full session together.

"(The warm-up is) a unique thing because I don't think most clubs have that," he said.

Women's team manager Liz Dixon shared a great story of how the club had gelled in recent years.

"From the outset, we were made to feel very welcome," she said.

"One of the funny stories is from the first time we had a players' tea, we have a players' tea altogether on a Thursday night which is lovely.

"And so the guys would (politely) wait and let us go first.

"Now three years down the track, it's first in, first-served kind of thing. There's still that respect, but it was so funny.

"It's still respectful but we just have a very good relationship with our other teams."

She relayed another example of how the women's team had been embraced.

"We do our best and fairest votes at the end of the game and we have a card and usually the coaches do a card," she said.

"To get different perspectives we give cards to independent people, so people in the crowd do it.

"And I'll go up to one of the men's (players) and say 'Can you do a card for me? And they go 'Oh yeah for sure'.

"I've never, ever heard that 'it's only women's footy'."

First-year player Frankie Stickland-Huggett had never played football before and never picked up a footy in her life.

She followed her partner - senior player Nick Miller - to the club and it wasn't long before she was hooked.

"I went to the season launch and met all the girls and never thought I'd play football," she said.

"I got conned into coming to a training one night and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would."

She spoke of the club's welcoming nature.

"It was a bit scary at first but everyone helps you along," she said.

"No one gives you a hard time if you make mistakes, everyone is just here to have fun. They get around you when something goes right or if something doesn't go right, it's okay. It's all about having fun."

Club historian Geoff Price provided further insight into how the women's team had added to Old Scotch.

"It's been magnificent and brought new life into the club," he said.

"And we build a lot on our club culture.

"This has just expanded it out unbelievably.

"And we've got an under-18 boys' side which has added more enthusiasm.

"When I first came in 1972, we might have had 20 on the track. We've now got about 80 participating here every training night (across all grades).

"They have a players' tea here every Thursday night. And it's quite humorous, actually. They break them into teams and give them little jobs to do.

"We've really built something big out of it."

Price loves it when Old Scotch's men's and women's sides all play at the same venue on the same day. He'd like to see it happen more often.

He'll certainly enjoy Saturday when three of the club's teams play finals at home.

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